Post on 18-Apr-2015
Beckery Island Regeneration Trust (No 5518679)
01458 831769
Somerset BA6 9EL glastonburytownhall@ukonline.co.uk
BECKERY ISLAND REGENERATION TRUST
Property Northover Mill, 3 Mill Lane, Glastonbury BA6 9NU
Proprietor Beckery Island Regeneration Trust
The building itself is a medieval fulling mill built by Glastonbury Abbey (Listed
Grade II, English Heritage Listed Building Number: 265998). The most recent survey
of Northover Milli (Figure 1) resulted in an interpretive plan showing the
development of the building.
In order to clarify the relationship of the building to the millstream, and in an effort to
understand the way in which the building functioned, the RPS plan was superimposed
upon a map of the site drawn in 1869 (sale map, Figure 3). A detail of the 1869 map
is shown in Figure 2.
RPS
survey
Figure 1. Plan of Northover Mill
Beckery Island Regeneration Trust (No 5518679)
01458 831769
Somerset BA6 9EL glastonburytownhall@ukonline.co.uk
Figure 2. Sale map of 1869.
Beckery Island Regeneration Trust (No 5518679)
01458 831769
Somerset BA6 9EL glastonburytownhall@ukonline.co.uk
Based on 1869 map plusRPS survey
Gate
path
Form
er bound
ary
Sewer
Pre
sent b
oun
dary
Wheel room
Stoc
ks
driv
e sh
aft
RPSreportsurvey
Cobbles
NORTHOVER MILL, GLASTONBURY
Nancy Hollinrake17 June 2012
sketch
ed f
rom
tit h
e map
proposed new boundary
Figure 3. Plan of Northover Mill superimposed on the estate map of 1869, with
newly-discovered features sketched on.
Beckery Island Regeneration Trust (No 5518679)
01458 831769
Somerset BA6 9EL glastonburytownhall@ukonline.co.uk
A small shed attached to the back of
the property is colour-coded purple in
Figure 1. During renovations, this
building was found to contain a flight
of steps leading down to the mill
stream below the northern wall of the
wheel room. This feature, which
would facilitate servicing of the mill
wheel, was probably a primary element
of the original design of the mill.
Figure 4. Stone steps lead to the
millstream below the wheel room.
Figure 2 above shows no sign of the strip of land or the accessway. There are
boundaries to the north of the Mill recorded on the tithe map (Figure 5), which pre-
dates the acquisition of the property by Clark, Son and Morland.
Figure 5. Tithe map of 1844.
Beckery Island Regeneration Trust (No 5518679)
01458 831769
Somerset BA6 9EL glastonburytownhall@ukonline.co.uk
Figure 5a. Tithe map annotated: mill stream outlined in green, Northover Mill
outlined in orange, ‘strip of land 7 metres wide’ (see above) coloured blue.
The strip of land coloured blue in Figure 5a appears to enter into the millstream while
the wheel room of the mill is not shown. The only explanation for this is that the strip
of land includes the stone steps down to the millstream, below the wheel room.
This interpretation clarifies several issues:
It explains why the strip coloured blue appears to enter the millstream and
ignores the Mill’s wheel room: it includes the stone steps as access into the
millstream.
It explains Clause 5 in the deeds: the Vendor wished to retain the right of way
because the steps made access to the millstream easier when it became
necessary to carry out maintenance of the stone walls of the millstream and/or
the foundations of the factory buildings. Before the invention of the JCB
maintenance works would have been undertaken from the millstream itself.
It explains the stone settings revealed during renovations on the northern side
of the Mill: the long stones forming a curve are one side of the ‘accessway’
mentioned in Clause 5 (Figure 3 and Figure 6 below).
Beckery Island Regeneration Trust (No 5518679)
01458 831769
Somerset BA6 9EL glastonburytownhall@ukonline.co.uk
Figure 6. - Cobbles and stone settings uncovered to the north of Northover Mill.
See Figure 3 for location plan.
i Conservation Statement for Listed Buildings, Morlands Enterprise Park, Glastonbury, unpubl. Client
report for South West Regional Development Agency, 2005.